If Sharon Rowley had her way, she would have pursued a career in the creative field.
Ever since she could recall, she had a strong passion for the visual arts—her favourite subject at school. However, when she was at Bishop Anstey High, she was encouraged to explore other paths considered more practical. She went on to become a lawyer.
Over the years, she managed to keep her spark alive by making birthday cards, painting jerseys and dresses, and occasionally producing pieces that stayed in the family. Both she and her husband, former prime minister Dr Keith Rowley, share a love for collecting the work of local artists and have always encouraged their daughters to paint.
Rowley vowed to herself that, upon retirement, she would finally pick up the brush and make that long-held dream part of her new chapter.
True to her word, two years after leaving the courtroom in January 2024, she debuted a 20 x 20-inch acrylic on canvas titled “Beyond the Blue Shutters” at the Caribbean Brushstrokes Art Gallery’s “The Ties That Bind” exhibition, held from July 15 to August 8. The space is located in Bridgetown, Barbados, and is owned by Trinidadian Rae Skinner—a former banker and past student of Sharon’s alma mater—who fulfilled her own goal of opening it on the island.
Rowley took two weeks to complete the piece, which was inspired by her home gardens cultivated by her husband, an avid gardener. The colourful canvas features bougainvillea in full bloom, purple petrea, blue plumbago, double-flowered red chaconia, orchids, and heliconia, all interspersed with crisp white-flowering plants and her frequent visitor—a kiskadee bird. The eye-catching painting allows the viewer to look straight through the blue wooden shutters, a trademark of Woodbrook homes in her grandmother’s era.
Seeking a tactile, energetic feel, she tried the impasto style for the first time, influenced by local artist Lisa O’Connor.
She explains: “One uses thick layers of paint to create a three-dimensional image that almost feels tangible. I felt that it would have been ideal to depict the flowers of the bougainvillea.” Her love for flora will likely remain at the centre of her work as she explores new themes as they “embody beauty, fragility, love, fertility, and the transience of life.”
The emotional resonance was immediate for the buyer—a Trinidadian residing in Barbados—who told her, “The piece grounded me in my present reality—where I now live—a property fenced with different bougainvillea that radiate with such splendour during the dry season. Their varying textures were captured so well. The blue wooden window frame took me back to old houses in the countryside as well as in Port-of-Spain. As a child, I always wondered who lived inside.”
The showcase was a collaborative affair featuring 17 families from across the region. Rowley exhibited alongside her older sister Beverley Valdez—an established full-time artist with collections locally, regionally, and internationally—and her daughter Tonya. Her other daughter, Sonel, was unable to participate due to pressing work commitments.
“I would never have ventured into this arena if I did not have Beverley and Tonya at my side,” Rowley tells We Life & Culture, noting that it was a unique experience of testing uncharted waters. “It is an honour to have had the opportunity to show alongside these two important people in my life. I would have been equally honoured had my daughter Sonel joined us.”
Valdez, who studied Fine Arts at undergraduate and graduate levels, always treated the craft as an unending journey. Sharon admires and is motivated by her dedication—from continuous education to visiting galleries and museums in whatever country she travels.
“She has definitely broadened my visual horizons and has exposed me to new artistic styles and colour theories,” she asserts, “all of which have served to refine my visual literacy and encourage me to continue painting.”
After practising law for 44 years, creating allows Rowley to take it slow now. She has already started her second piece and has recently completed a two-week sculpting course taught by “the Queen of Clay”, Sherlann Peters, at the University of the West Indies Creative Arts Department. “It was an exhilarating experience watching a block of clay transform into a bust,” she says. “My subject was my husband, Keith. It is for the viewer to determine if the subject is identifiable.”
Passing along advice to anyone wanting to take the plunge themselves, Sharon shares: “Once you have a dream, pursue it until you are able to realise it. As I frequently say nowadays, ‘It is never too late to be what you might have been.’”
